The Casimir force between real materials: Experiment and theory

By Galina L. Klimchitskaya, Umar Mohideen, Vladimir M. Mostepanenko. 2009

540 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The physical origin of the Casimir force is connected with the existence of zero-point and thermal fluctuations. The Casimir effect is very general and finds applications in various fields of physics. This review is limited to the rapid progress at the intersection of experiment and theory that has been achieved in the last few years. It includes a critical assessment of the proposed approaches to the resolution of the puzzles arising in the applications of the Lifshitz theory of the van der Waals and Casimir forces to real materials. All the primary experiments on the measurement of the Casimir force between macroscopic bodies and the Casimir-Polder force between an atom and a wall that have been performed in the last decade are reviewed, including the theory needed for their interpretation. The methodology for the comparison between experiment and theory in the force-distance measurements is presented. The experimental and theoretical results described here provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of dispersion forces in real materials and offer guidance for the application of the Lifshitz theory to the interpretation of the measurement results.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Civil and Structural Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/dbb0387459daa962d8a7851deea8cbc09ea4b933

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

In Civil and Structural Engineering

Citations in the corpus

Materials perspective on Casimir and van der Waals interactions (2015, background): “…concerning typical metals and dielectrics interactions, captured by the macroscopic vdW/Casimir approach, has been summarized in several books and recent reviews (Bordag et al., 2009b; Buhmann and Welsch, 2007; Dalvit et al., 2011a; Klimchitskaya et al., 2009; Lamoreaux, 2005; Parsegian, 2006).”
The Neutron and Its Role in Cosmology and Particle Physics (2011, background): “bounds from torsion balance experiments with large objects for ranges λ>2 µm , from Heckel et al . (2008), and from cantilever experiments with small objects for ranges between 2 nm and 1 µm , see Klimchitskaya et al. (2009) and references therein. The force on the cantilever is dominated by the ”